1. The petitioner is the President of the Kerala State Committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the President of the Azhicode Power-loom Mills Workers' Union, Azhicode. The question raised in this petition concerns the conduct of the police in regard to satyagraha and other forms of agitation resorted to by the workmen of Ravikrishna Mills and Usha Textiles, both at Azhicode, to press, what according to them are, their legitimate demands. The petitioner complains of certain mass retrenchments of workmen which, according to him, was malafide and unjustified. It is said that the District Labour Officer called a conciliation conference on 15 21974 but the management refused to attend it. The District Labour Officer called a conference a second time and then too the management is said to have refused to attend the conference. It is said that in these circumstances the Union was compelled to call for a strike on 26 21974. It is the petitioner's complaint that as a revenge against the strike the management declared lock-out of the factories from 27-2-1974.

2. The complaint in the petition is that the workers who have a right to perform satyagraha are not allow